1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an SMTP server, a POP server, a mail server, a mail processing system and a web server that adds additional information to a piece of mail that is transmitted via a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mails (e-mails) have been conventionally exchanged via Internet. The Internet system that enables the exchange of mails includes a plurality of terminals, existing SMTP servers and existing POP servers that are connected through the Internet. In this system, when a user creates a mail specifying a predetermined mail address as a recipient using a terminal, and instructs the terminal to send the created mail, the terminal sends the created mail to a predetermined one of the existing SMTP servers in accordance with SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol). The existing SMTP server receives the mail sent from the terminal and transmits it to another existing SMTP server having a server address included in the recipient's mail address of the mail. The existing SMTP server that finally receives the mail stores the received mail in a predetermined memory thereof.
In a case where the user instructs the terminal to display the mail arrived at his/her mail address, the terminal requests a predetermined one of the existing POP servers in accordance with POP (post office protocol), to transmit the mails. The existing POP server that received the mail transmission request retrieves from a predetermined memory the mail specifying the mail address from which transmission was requested as the recipient, and sends the retrieved mail to the terminal. The terminal receiving the mail then displays the received mail.
In recent years, advertisements have been transmitted using mails. For example, it is known that an advertiser, an advertisement agent or the like creates mails, each including the advertisement, and sends the created mails to predetermined mail addresses. Also, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-320314 describes an e-mail advertisement insertion apparatus that inserts an advertisement into an e-mail.